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Food for thought

  • When ginseng tea isn’t enough, figuring out my bandwidth.

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    Bandwidth sounds like a technical term, something to measure internet speed, but lately I’ve been using it to talk about my mental space. Not long ago, I started feeling this low, nagging anxiety, a weird distress that just wouldn’t quit. I blamed it on a temporary mood and went for a run to clear my head. The next day, the feeling was back, kind of like that annoying popup ad you can’t close. While updating my Now page, I realized I was juggling far more than I ever admitted, especially projects that needed my full attention.

    A “Now” page is my quick snapshot of what I’m focused on at the moment, a sort of last page of my journal. Inspired by Derek Sivers, it’s a way of sharing what’s driving my attention and energy right now. I try to keep it fresh, updating it as my focus shifts, even if it means sometimes admitting I overdid it.

    A few years back, I dove headfirst into a bunch of projects. I started volunteering, advising startups, and chasing new business ideas, some that worked and others that, well, ended up being my own little disasters I’m too embarrassed to share. I love diving deep into something, getting lost in the details, and burning the midnight oil until my brain begs for mercy. It feels like an endurance race sometimes, with no official finish line, just me chasing that moment when everything finally clicks.

    I reviewed my goals and initiatives and found that some were simply left behind. That neglect stirred up more stress, so I decided to slow down on a few fronts, pausing projects like learning Korean or switching from cycling (yes, cycling, my beloved sport) to running. These two activities require quite a lot of time. Cycling, for example, isn’t just a quick loop for me. I end up on half-day rides where my legs and schedule both pay the price, but I love the endurance high I get. That feeling of pushing a bit further when my body insists it’s done can be addictive. Even better when it’s a full day of riding, I feel like I’m on a day trip.

    The issue with pausing or reducing some projects is that they’re sometimes social events, and the downside of that is meeting less with those friends. To be honest, switching from cycling to running wasn’t my best idea. I miss the group rides, the banter, and the coffee stops that are half the reason we even ride. It’s a bittersweet trade-off, but for now, it’s helping me keep my stress in check.

    Talking about them, one of my cyclist friends said some people seem to have endless bandwidth, and it got me wondering: do they learn how to manage their energy, or were they just born with extra batteries?

    “Nothing in life is as important as you think it is while you are thinking about it,”

    – Daniel Kahneman

    Simple research tells us that our brains aren’t built to do everything at once. Every time we switch tasks, we lose a bit of focus. Experts like Daniel Kahneman (The guy from Thinking, Fast and Slow) remind us that our attention is limited and needs careful management. In other words, having more bandwidth isn’t about some secret magic power, it’s about making choices that protect what little mental space we have, something I’m still suck.

    So, I’ve tried a few tricks to keep my energy in check. I schedule downtime, set clear boundaries, gave meditation a shot and even switch coffee for ginseng (Ginseng helps rats handle stress, so I figured it might help me handle the rat race.)

    Well, none of these turned me into an ultra marathoner (thank goodness), but they did help me realize that trying to do too much just leaves me running on empty. One time, I promised a nonprofit I’d build their website in the same weekend I was juggling another project. By Sunday, I was microwaving my tea for the third time and realized I hadn’t eaten a real meal in 24 hours. That was my wake-up call.

    “Dieguito, I’ve done that before, you are a 3x burnout survivor, pay attention.”

    – Me

    Life shifts, and so does my capacity to handle it. Maybe bandwidth isn’t something we master once and for all, but something we renegotiate as we grow. Right now, I’m just glad I’m recognizing those signs of overload before they knock me out. If my future self is reading this, I hope you’ve learned a few more tricks. If not, at least you can smile at how far we’ve come.

    Will I ever fully figure out my bandwidth? Probably not. Knowing me, I’ll keep piling on random projects and then wonder why my schedule looks like an abstract painting. But at least now, I can laugh at the irony while sipping a cup of ginseng tea and secretly planning my next half-baked scheme.

  • The Return of the Fly

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    Close-up of a Black soldier Fly by Oktavianus Mulyadi

    Fifteen years ago, I went down a rabbit hole that was mostly larvae. Specifically, Hermetia illucens, better known as Black Soldier Flies. I was obsessed. Not in the “cute pet bug” way, but in the “what if this insect could help save the world” kind of way. I read everything I could find, told anyone who would listen, and probably came uncomfortably close to trying one on toast.

    Then, like most fixations that aren’t actively paying my rent, it faded into the background. The flies flew away and ruined my neighbor’s orange production. 🤷‍♂️

    And now here they are again.

    They’re buzzing through headlines as the next big thing in sustainable food systems. The BBC recently put out a piece painting them as miracle workers. They eat food waste at astonishing speed, turn it into compost and protein, and don’t demand much in return. No water. No land. No feelings about being farmed. It’s the kind of efficiency that makes engineers giddy and environmentalists hopeful.

    Here’s the article if you want the sunny version:
    😊 The little bug with a big appetite – BBC

    But of course, it’s never that simple.

    Another group, the Stray Dog Institute, offers a colder take. They argue that industrializing insect farming doesn’t magically clean up the ethics or the waste problem. Feeding bugs to livestock still props up factory farming. And food waste isn’t just a disposal issue. It’s systemic. Solving it with bugs may just be tech-washing a deeper problem.

    Their article is here:
    😞 Black Soldier Flies Are Not an Ideal Solution – Stray Dog Institute

    So where does that leave me?

    Still weirdly into these flies. Still not eating them. Still wondering if our future involves more systems thinking and fewer silver bullets. I think both articles are worth reading. The optimism and the criticism. The innovation and the discomfort. That’s usually where the real stuff lives.

    What fascinates me most isn’t just the bugs. It’s the recurring pattern. We find something promising. We scale it. Then we realize scaling anything comes with trade-offs. Then we’re left to decide if the trade-offs are worth it or if we’re just trying to avoid the harder questions.

    For now, I’m just glad the flies are back. And that I still care.

  • The end of the maker’s midlife crisis

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    What do you do?
    And why, my friend?
    For whom does your effort
    Begin and end?

    Is it for love,
    For truth, for gain?
    For fleeting joy,
    Or to ease some pain?

    Do you create
    To leave a mark,
    To light the way,
    Or spark the dark?

    So ask yourself,
    When all feels new:
    What drives your soul,
    And what drives you?

  • Have you asked your team how they really feel about Mondays?

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    Maybe not directly, but ask what days of the week they feel most productive. For me, Mondays were the worst. I used to feel that Sunday evening dread creeping in, knowing what Monday had in store: endless meetings, tough decisions, and a drained feeling by day’s end. 🥶 And guess what? Most of the team felt the same way.

    So, I ran an experiment to change my Mondays, and it worked wonders. Not just for Mondays, but for my Sunday evenings too.

    Here’s what I did:

    1. No meetings on Mondays: Blocked off the entire day for “Flow Mode.”
    2. Moved sprint planning to Tuesdays: This helps the team ease into the week and avoids the temptation to work over the weekend. Plus, one third of all sick days happen on Mondays, so attendance issues are less disruptive.
    3. The dev, support, and mkt teams can use Mondays to solve possible issues generated during the weekend.
    4. Made Mondays a day for reflection and solving issues: Use the day to gather insights from the weekend, summarize last week’s learnings, and prepare for informed decisions.

    Paul Graham says it best: “Don’t your spirits rise at the thought of having an entire day free to work, with no appointments at all? Well, that means your spirits are correspondingly depressed when you don’t.”

    My Sunday nights used to be filled with anxiety, but now I look forward to them because my Mondays are mine.

    Am I moving my worst day from Monday to Tuesday? 🤷‍♀️

    Well, yesterday was Monday and I felt super productive. Today is Tuesday, and I’m here super excited about sharing this with you and eager to get things done.

  • World powered by women

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    Last month, Nadine Hammer and I organized a series of free sustainability workshops around the city.

    Can you guess the gender ratio of the RSVPs and attendees?

    **99% women, from diverse ages and ethnic backgrounds.**

    Some thoughts:

    • 1. Research indicates that women often express greater environmental concern and feel more responsible for fostering sustainable practices. This situation invites a deeper look into how environmental awareness and activism are influenced by gender roles.
    • 2. Are we conditioning women to assume ‘nurturing’ roles, including environmental caretaking, while men may not view it as their responsibility? This observation challenges us to rethink societal norms and the distribution of environmental duties across genders.
    • 3. What implications does this gender imbalance have for creating effective environmental policies? If one gender is largely missing from these discussions, can our policies truly be representative or effective? This disparity prompts policymakers to explore new ways to engage all demographics in sustainability efforts. Or is it just a matter of electing more women?
    • 4. Could the gender uniformity in workshop attendance lead to an echo chamber where only the perspectives of one demographic are heard and amplified? This situation raises concerns about potential narrow representation in activist movements and the blind spots it might introduce in tackling complex issues like climate change.